Got a few million burning a hole in your back pocket and fancy making a whole load more over the next few years?
Then you might be interested in buying a 2.5 per cent share in Flightline – the world’s best horse who’s set to make his owners around £32million a year.
The electrifying four-year-old floored the racing world with his breathtaking Breeders’ Cup Classic win last Saturday night.
Sent off at a suicidal pace, the John Sadler-trained four-year-old breezed past pacesetter Life Is Good to somehow keep going and going, winning by eight-and-a-quarter lengths.
He’s so good he wasn’t even trying at the end, eased down by jockey Flavien Prat.
The praise has been universal – but what does it mean it terms of cold, hard cash for his lucky owners?
Well, it means a hell of a lot of it.
While we might not quite be getting into Galileo territory, the sire of sires thought to be worth around £1billion at his death last year, Flightline will bring in tens of millions a year.
Respected racing pundit Michael Christian said, as of right now, Flightline is worth $100m, around £87m.
Flightline’s retirement was confirmed yesterday and he will stand at Lane’s End, a short walk from the Keeneland track he made his own last weekend.
Bloodhorse put Flightline’s worth at around $60m before that win, jumping to around $80m afterwards.
That is surely a conservative guess, with the world’s best horse earning comparisons to Frankel, the greatest ever.
If all goes well Flightline could conceivably cover 180 mares a year.
If his stallion fee – which should be confirmed soon – comes in at around $200,000 (£175,000), then that means $36m (£31.5m a year).
He will be five by the time he covers his first mares.
Frankel’s stallion career began on Valentine’s Day in 2013 and he is still going strong ten seasons on.
Should Flightline continue in similar fashion then his owners could be looking at a £315m return over the next decade.
That makes the £3,341,487 he made on the racecourse look like peanuts.
Who actually owns Flightline is quite complicated.
Unlike a football team which can be pinpointed on an individual, a total of five owners make up the Flightline syndicate.
They are Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing.
The face of the ownership group is Terry Finley, who was reduced to tears watching his once-in-a-lifetime runner win at Keeneland, Kentucky.
The finer points of their ownership agreement is private, but it’s safe to say Flightline will make all of them millionaires many times over.
In England, Shadwell, owners of superstar miler Baaeed, can expect something similar, though not quite as good.
The four-year-old six-time Group 1 winner was retired last month after suffering the only defeat of his career on Ascot’s Champions Day.
His stud fee was kept private in a statement detailing his retirement but is expected to be made public soon.
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